Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-06-30

From a paper by Clarence Cook,
accompanied by a protrait, in the Cen
taH'y, we quote as follows: Il confess
l heard not without a secret pleasure
that the relic-hunters so chip and ham,
mer the stone that marks Irvino's
grave as to make its frequent renewal
necessary. 1t did not seem to me a
| grlevous wrong, nor in any true sense
a proclamation of the grave, but rather
a testimony to the lovableness of Irv-
1ng's character, and an evidence of the
wide extent of his fame, that, from
filing the circle of the educated and
| refined among his countrymen, has
| now come to include that lower
stratum of our common humanity
which has only instructive and, so to
speak, mechanical ways of expressing
its feelings.
cit would not have been easy to find
place more in harmony with the
associations that gather about Irving's
name as a writer than the spot in
which he is buried. Even to-day, with
all the changes that have been brought
about by the growth of the neighbour
ing settlement, the spirit of peace and
quiet that used to brood over the
region hovers there undisturbed. Try
ings own words, in the Legend of
Sleepy Hollow describing the grave
yard, the old church, and the stream
that plays about it's feet, reflect with
the faithfulness of mirror the scene
as we behold it TODAY.
Here IS the chuTcn, a small build
ing with rough sides of the country
stone, surmounted by a picturesque
roof, and with an open bell-turret over
which still veers the vane pierced with
the initials of the Vrederick Felypsen
who built the church and endowed it
in 1899. In our rambles about the
graveyard we used to find the bricks
of light-colored clay, brought from
Holland, and of which, SO tradition
said, the church had been originally
built, or which had, at any rate, been
largely used in it's construction.
1.-THE church was seldom used, ex-
cept in the summertime. On COM
munion Sundays the handsome seven
teenth-century Jacobean table of oak
brought from Holland, where plenty
like it may still be found, was set out,
as it is to-day, with the plain vessels
of silver presented by Queen Anne,
as the formula goes, that used to
please my childish taste for things that
had about them the flavor of old days.
1.-The same budding taste for antiqui-
ties led me and some of my school
mates to the old graveyard, where we
hunted up the oldest tombstones,
scraping off the moss and lichens to
decipher the names and dates, and en-
joying many a laugh over their carved
ornaments, scrolls, and cockle-shells,
and sturdy, dew-lapped. Dutch cher
| ubs, with their stumpy little wings
scored like checker-boards for plum
age. Many of these grave-stones were
said to have been imported from Hol-
land by the early settlers, like the
bricks of which the church was built,
the table in the church, and much of
| the furniture to be found in the farm
houses of the countryside, chairs and
tables, cupboards, and even looking
| glasses. The carvings, memorial YER
ses, and scripture-texts upon these
tombstones were cut by the more skill
full workmen overseas, and the names
and dates were filled in here at home
| aS 0cca sion called J"